Subject: Re: Text Within Text
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 05 2001 - 21:09:32 GMT
I'm going to chime back three lines for each of Matthews fine 3 paragraphs...
In his later work in particular, Salinger stresses the "white space"
or action that happens off the page and in the reader quite
often...in other words, he's pretty clear that what he doesn't write
or say is part of the story...to have that writing insight may indeed
mean he uses it as a living one as well...in other words, he may have
realized that by stepping back from the public hunger for him he
increases it...
Matthew makes a fine point when he notes that an artist's need to
express his ideas and emotions is not the same thing as a commitment
to be part of the publicity surrounding the art. Salinger's concern
for his art seems so superb that it seems fair not to care about his
lack of concern for publicity.
Text within text in Salinger is smooth and seamless in ways I have
yet to reach. Sometimes, when struggling with my academic prose, I
think that much of my scholarship involves finding the "seed" passage
or quote and planting it in my prose so that ideas may grow close to
the original provoking thought. It still feels clunky most of the
time but when someone in a Salinger story produces a letter or even
in SAI when Salinger kicks the story off with quotes, the text within
text seems seamless and integral to the prose. Yes, few can insert
text within text as well as Salinger has!
will
-- Will Hochman Assistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html
- * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Sep 10 2001 - 15:42:13 GMT